Media sharing services allow users to publish and access all types of media, including pictures, music, and videos with others via the Internet. These services may be private or public in nature and be open to any number of users. Pictures, songs, and video clips may be uploaded to a media sharing service, which will make the media available to others. YouTube is currently a popular video sharing service, which allows users to search the volumes of published video clips, select video clips of interest, and view the selected video clips. For a given video clip, users may also post written comments, which are viewable by other users. The users are able to communicate with each other as a group by posting and responding to each other's comments. Since the users generally view the video clips and the comments at different times, the communications relating to the video clip generally are not provided in real time, and thus, provide at a best a rudimentary mechanism to allow a group of users to communicate with each other in association with viewing the video clip.
When a user identifies a video clip of interest and wants to inform another user or particular group of users of the video clip, a link to the video clip may be sent to other users through email, messaging services, and the like. Upon receipt of the message, the each user can select the link to gain access to, view, and comment on the associated video clip. Again, the viewing of the video clip and any comments posted for the video clip are not provided in real time. Given the popularity of media sharing, it is becoming more common for users to coordinate the sharing of video clips and other media such that the users establish a time when they will share video clips or other media. Instead of relying on posting and reviewing comments to facilitate communications, the users are establishing a voice or messaging session with one another while they are viewing video clips or other media items. To enhance a group sharing experience, it is preferable to synchronize the presentation of the video clips or other media to the respective users.
Unfortunately, the retrieval and control of video clips or other media is not automatically synchronized and is solely dependent on the individual users. As such, the media being provided to the users at any given time is not synchronized, and extensive efforts are required by the users to ensure that everyone is viewing or listening to roughly the same portion of the desired media. This lack of synchronization is particularly problematic for streaming media. Even if the users successfully coordinate initiation of the streaming media, network and processing delays will vary from one user to the next and cause the different media streams to become substantially misaligned. Since each user can individually control playback of the media stream, if one user elects to stop, pause, rewind, or advance the playback of the media stream, significant efforts are required to re-synchronize playback for different users of the group.
Given the increasing desire for users to share media in real time as a group, there is a need for efficient and effective techniques to organize such media sharing sessions, and allow users to readily join organized media sharing sessions, as well as synchronize playback and control of playback for such media sharing sessions.